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Perfect Honeymoon

by Baldwin Cheng

My wife and I had each traveled a lot before we were married and we wanted our honeymoon to be somewhere neither one of us had been before. That knocked out all the usual, expected places. But it turned out that each of us had Iceland on our “visit before we die” list, so we decided why not go there for our honeymoon? Everyone we told about it thought we had lost our minds.

We’d read about the Blue Lagoon and the naturally-heated spas, so we were covered for relaxation time. And it also offered some outdoor adventure, great culture and music, and 20 hours of sunlight per day in August.

Despite our high expectations, Iceland blew them all away. Neither one of us had been anyplace like this before. The sheer diversity of landscapes, environments and experiences was almost overwhelming. Black sand beaches? Check. Stunning cliffs and spectacular waterfalls? Check. Rock climb up basalt formations to see puffins in the wild? Check. Walk on a glacier? Check. Otherworldly iceberg-filled lagoon that you can cruise through on a boat–are you freaking kidding me??? Check. This is a country where the geysers are the most boring natural feature — and they have The Geysir, the one that all other geysers in the world are named after. See the pictures in all the other stories on this site and realize that they only give you a hint of what it’s like to really be there in person.

Despite all those amazing sights and experiences, our most inspirational memory of Iceland was… the hot tubs. As soon as we arrived, my friend and guide Kristjan gave us some great travel advice: go straight from the airport to the Blue Lagoon. There’s nothing better after an international flight than soaking in the biggest, vastest, blue-est pool of hot mineral water you can imagine for about an hour. We popped out refreshed and rarin’ to go.

For the remainder of our trip, we ended nearly every night unwinding from our daily dose of mind-blowing natural scenery in a fantastic hot tub, the best of them out in the open under a bright pink sky with the sun still hanging just above the horizon.